


Memory -- A Save Tokyo City Story

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Tokyo Babylon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-21
Updated: 2008-12-21
Packaged: 2018-01-25 01:48:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1625081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Subaru, Hokuto, and Seishirou prepare for a Sunday outing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memory -- A Save Tokyo City Story

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Ryn

 

 

"Hokuto-chan," Subaru asked while buttoning his sleeves, "Isn't this just a bit....much?"

"Of course it is!" his only older sister declared as she fussed with his black leather belt, ensuring that his white linen shirt was tucked in properly. 

"But this is a routine job," he said, "And I see no reason why we have to wear anything special today..."

"It's a Sunday! People dress up on Sundays all the time! Don't they, Sei-chan?"

"Of course they do," Seishirou agreed amiably while Hokuto planted her hands on her hips and nodded indignantly in time to his every syllable. "It's their day off and people naturally want to look their best...although they'll never match you, Hokuto-chan."

Hokuto hooted her brazen laugh. "Well said, well said! Now, don't forget the map because we can't be late...time is money for the greatest mediums in the nation!"

Subaru tried a different tack as they were hustled to the doorway by his impatient twin. "I'd feel and work much better in my normal clothes. It'll only take me a minute to change..."

"No arguments, no delays. OFF. WE. GO!"

"But I wear clothes like these every day..."

"Subaru," Hokuto's voice dipped pityingly as they stepped into the hallway, "your everyday clothes can't compare to _this_."

The hallway mirror reflected their gleaming figures, the neutral colors and exquisite lines accentuated by bits of blue here and there. Seishirou locked the door to Subaru's apartment and pocketed the key inside his butter-brown vest.

"But nobody else wears school uniforms on Sundays," Subaru said. "Won't we stick out in Akiba like sore thumbs?"

"And that's the point," Hokuto replied as she tenderly touched the school logo she'd hand-stitched onto his blazer. "Everyone else will be wearing their most outrageously bizarre outfits. They'll be trying their best to do in one outing what I do every day. And I'm going to show them how it's done!"

*********

Subaru discovered later that his older sister was right, as she always was. Sundays in Akihabara were a dizzy mix of crazy colors and odd sounds. Members of every sub-culture and sub-sub-culture turned out in droves and crammed the streets. Yankee tough guys told raucous jokes and whistled at battalions of sweet Lolitas armed with parasols, while the ever-present dark-suited salarymen prattled away on their cell phones and blended into the cacophony. Hokuto's luscious school uniforms were a standout, and Subaru valiantly ignored the pairs of eyes measuring and comparing them to the other pedestrians. 

"It's been a while," Seishirou murmured, absently rubbing the suede elbow patches on his jacket. "I don't remember Akiba being this crowded."

"Get with the times, Sei-chan, this is the future of Tokyo!" 

Hokuto spun on her heels and stuck her tongue out at a bespectacled man wearing a mecha T-shirt and following her adoringly. Her plaid mini-skirt flared, allowing her white bloomers to play peek-a-boo with the male shoppers lining the sidewalks, who appreciatively _oohed_ and _ahhhed_ at the sight. 

"The future, yes, but there's something to be said about the wonders of the past as well," their very own professor-figure mused. He gallantly held out an arm, clearing a way for the twins through the swarming throng. 

Seishirou treated everyone to ice cream that they savored while walking, and Subaru thanked him repeatedly. There was nothing better than being part of the huge Tokyo crowds and eating ice cream on a nice day. He did his best to prevent the mint chocolate chip from staining his glove as he hunted for the map in his jacket pocket, and Seishirou adroitly swooped down and licked the drippy creamy fluids off of his cone and index finger, much to Hokuto's delight and his own inexplicable chagrin. 

Akiba's thoroughfare branched off into a smaller street, and then again into something that was more paved path than actual road. The storefronts gradually changed from cheery, welcoming entrances with neon signs blazing away in the early afternoon sun to intimate little shops specializing in oddities of all persuasions- laserdiscs, dolls' clothes, artists' supplies, vending-machine figurines, ancient videogame systems, boutique bicycle parts--every passion could be indulged by Akiba's endless bounty. 

"Here it is!" Subaru led the way, crossing the street until they stood in front of a sliver of a shop with an all-glass exterior. 

The store looked warm and inviting. A bobtailed black cat dozed on top of a stack of books in the display window; Subaru's gaze was naturally drawn to the bookshelves displaying their neatly sorted volumes. And yet...

"Do you feel it?" he murmured to his companions. 

Hokuto's face paled slightly. Seishirou adjusted his glasses and tucked his gloved hands into his pockets as he peered into the window. 

"C'mon," he said softly, resisting the urge to whisper even outside of the shop. "Let's see what the problem is."

The "Closed" sign clattered lightly against the door as they passed through the entrance, the backs of Hokuto's fingers pressed against Subaru's waist. 

"It's here, but I can't tell what it is," she whispered. 

They fanned out and each took a different path, Subaru to the left, Hokuto to the right, and Seishirou examined the calligraphy books in the cozy corner. For a small store it was certainly well-stocked, with many modern volumes that Subaru easily recognized. 

The back corner contained a small children's section; Subaru shook his head as one book demanded his attention...and there it was! A copy of "Hachiko's Vigil", emblazoned with the loyal white dog's enigmatic face, was prominently featured on the top shelf. 

When they were in elementary school he and Hokuto read their copy every day, over and over again until their grandmother deemed the tattered book fit for the rubbish heap. And no matter how hard they'd searched over the years they'd never found another one. It couldn't really be "Hachiko's Vigil", or could it? The buzz flooding Subaru's ears as he grasped the book with eager hands drowned out the dim murmurs in the background growing more strident by the second. 

The book's glowing shape molded itself around Subaru's palms and wrists, then flowed upward until he was embraced in it; the book was his! The thrill of discovery warmed him, the heat increasing, multiplying, red-hot waves cresting until he could barely stand it. He tried dropping the book but it was glued to his palms and wouldn't budge. Liquefied heat gagged his throat and forced its way downward, choking off the wards before he could say them. The pressure became thick and oppressive and breathe, why couldn't he breathe--

_"Hey there little boy, want to see my nice book?" And the curious student touched the cover but meaty hands pulled the book away, pausing and moving closer to the dark alley that awaited them both. The book clattered to the ground and the boy's screams were his own, Subaru's broken body abused afterward and it wasn't just him, but dozens of him facing the same fate: fear and jagged pain and the blackness of unforgiving death. And then shock plus a surprised roar, fingernails broken and bleeding from grabbing nothing but empty space--_

Subaru cried out soundlessly as his body was ripped in half; the agony and scarlet pools dissipating as the bookstore shimmered in his hazy gaze. The book wrenched Seishirou back and forth as he gripped the volume in both hands, a living, filthy abomination uncontrollable by anyone. His sister desperately covered it in one layer of talismans after another, chanting the sing-song syllables but what could she do, in the end?

She couldn't finish it, only delay the inevitable. And Seishirou-san...

"SEISHIROU-SAN!"

Subaru leapt forward and knocked the book out of his friend's grip with his gloved fists; the book screeched as it skidded across the floor. He and Hokuto stood shoulder-to-shoulder, glancing at one another as they worked together. Scraps of paper flew from two pairs of hands flowing as one, his sister's high-pitched voice complementing his own and they were together as they always were, and always would be. 

The book shuddered and swelled, then let out a final wail as it burst into black, inky flames that released no smoke. It huffed twice, then snuffed out and fell silent. Subaru placed a hand on Hokuto's shoulder; he didn't need to say that he was proud of her. She already knew. 

It hit him then. Seishirou-san! His friend was curled in a ball, head lowered enough that the rich brown hair shadowed his face. 

"Seishirou-san, are you all right?" 

His glasses had been knocked away and Subaru waited by his side. The cat snarled and lashed a paw in Seishirou's direction. The older man's white face was slashed by a sneer, dark eyes unseeing as he trembled all over. 

"Sei-chan," Hokuto crooned, "come back to us."

She rubbed small circles with her knuckles into his broad back, and he shuddered and gradually became the Seishirou they both knew. "I'm sorry to have worried you," he apologized, finding his voice. "It seems like we encountered something unexpected today, didn't we?"

Subaru nestled his friend's hands in his own. The gloves had split and been burned away, but had done their job; the skin was reddened and seared in a way no normal flame could accomplish, but hadn't been burned into useless stumps like he'd feared.

"The pain," Subaru whispered. "How did you stand it?"

Seishirou smiled. "Because I had to, to protect you. Besides, it faded over time."

"Did you see it, when you were holding it? The book's secret?"

"I know," the older man sighed. "Its evilness was too powerful for anyone to ignore."

"He used the book to lure children to him," Subaru explained to his perplexed sister. "And when they were alone, they--"

"The book's taint grew with every one he murdered," his friend added, staring at the smoking ruin. A dog's dark eye balefully studied him from the cover. "But it came for him in the end and swallowed him alive, and I can't say I mourn his fate."

"I'm surprised that normal people couldn't sense it," Hokuto mused. 

Subaru sighed ironically. "That's probably why a book as wonderful as `Hachiko's Vigil' sat on the shelves unsold for so long."

"You idiot!" Hokuto suddenly bellowed, rapping him sharply on the head. "Why did you touch it when we were shouting at you not to?"

"Ow! I'm sorry!" Subaru cried. "I'm sorry! I don't know what came over me! I saw the book..."

"...and succumbed to its charms, the same way it seduced its innocent victims. Don't be so hard on him, Hokuto-chan."

Subaru bowed again and again at his companions.

"But I hope you learned your lesson," his friend continued. "The greatest dangers sometimes come from the things closest to you."

Seishirou smiled sweetly and Subaru paused, unsure if he should return the gesture. The twins helped their tall friend put on his glasses and lifted him on his feet, Seishirou protesting but they mothered him anyway. 

"Well!" Hokuto announced cheerfully, picking up the cat and soothing its frazzled nerves. "Another mystery resolved by the spiritual guardians of Japan. Suzuki-sensei will be pleased. See what they can do for Sei-chan at the hospital, Subaru. I'll clean up here."

"Don't be long," he called as he shepherded Seishirou outside. "The bookstore's owner promised us dinner, remember? He's regarded as a master of Kyoto cuisine."

Both men grinned at Hokuto's yips of delight as the door closed behind them.

*********

Japanese sunsets were all the more beautiful because they were so brief. The rich oranges, reds, and yellows spilled over the horizon as Subaru and Seishirou sat together under the paulownia tree, overlooking the bookstore owner's traditional garden. They'd eaten the tofu-based delicacies until they groaned with delight; Hokuto shooed them outside in order to help the shop owner with the dishes. 

"Why so sad, Subaru?" Seishirou asked. 

They both rested against the thick, reassuring tree trunk, and Subaru leaned into the steadying feel of their upper arms pressed companionably against each other. The twin followed a tangerine trail cascading across the sky as he thought. "Because... it hurts to see something I loved wound others, especially children. They had no idea what was coming when they said yes and followed that man."

Seishirou pulled a cigarette out of the box, but his bandaged hands fumbled with the lighter. Subaru helped guide his shaky fingers; the flame clicked on and off, and the smoke wafted into the fragrant air. He took a long drag on his cigarette and exhaled slowly before answering. "Books have a strange power, don't they? Some people aren't affected by books at all; they're just ink on pages, really. But others hear the melody of promise all books sing. That potential enriches many readers' lives, for they learn how to harness a book's inherent power."

"And for some, the very act of savoring a book's potential goes awry. It consumes them. They keep buying and collecting books they may never read, more and more until their lives are ruled by their ownership. Or even worse, they're enmeshed by the inner universe each book possesses and become trapped forever inside, willingly or not. The book's reality becomes more important than the world we live in."

"Have you ever been captivated so, Seishirou-san?" 

For whatever reason, the answer was suddenly important to him. Seishirou paused and Subaru flinched under his friend's sharp gaze.

The corners of the older man's lips softened and twitched into a wry smile. "I was bewitched a long time ago," he replied softly, "and still am, even today."

Subaru's face flushed--it was because of the rice wine, he told himself. He fished around for words he'd never find and touched one of Seishirou's bandaged hands, examining the doctor's handiwork. 

"Does it still hurt?"

Seishirou smiled for real this time. "A little, but you needn't worry, Subaru-kun. They'll heal."

The older man squeezed his fingers and reached up to ruffle his shaggy hair. "Just be careful in the future, okay? Use your head before rushing off somewhere I can't find you."

"I promise." And Subaru meant it.

"Good! Now let's see how your sister's doing, shall we? Besides, Suzuki-sensei's supposed to be a crack Go player, and I want to see just how good he is."

Subaru half-listened to his friend's ramblings about stones and strategy as the sky embraced them one last time, the colors blossoming into the most glorious crimson rivulets. They left the protection of the paulownia tree, the hues fading as the warmth swelled in Subaru's chest; he concentrated on stepping in Seishirou's footsteps, skipping along in the taller man's wake just like he and Hokuto used to do when they were little and the world was young. 

 


End file.
